OFPG - Episode 41 (Worker Placement Games)

0:40 hi everybody i'm starla and we are games yeah and we're back and we're back hey before we get started okay okay i want to say thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes because my birthday was a couple of days ago with by the time you see this i just want to say thank you now to get the special day that somebody around here got but you know it's all good it's all good thank you he had a special day well i'll do whatever you have especially you got breakfast that's right pancakes that's oh good y'all that's one of your favorite it was good i got up and cooked it yes it did yes you did you got a birthday balloon it was so cute i got a birthday balloon i got a birthday balloon got some things but you got a holiday well i always get a holiday see you you even met you got a holiday thanks to stephen stephen for letting me know it's not just a holiday it's starla day so from now on no more happy holidays but see you didn't have beyonce i think beyonce was born on either the day before me uh my day okay so i got beyonce what's okay where's that guy okay i got he just what was it he's interest albert you're just elbow interesting elba is born on my back what yeah that's kind of nice to have don't be don't be no no no man crash no man no man crushing nobody she's saying this i know you're

2:10 married i know i'm married but just call me and say hi no no no no none of that none of that okay i'm just playing yeah

2:34 but again that's the better virgo but okay okay that's debatable i think really what 10 days apart or not i think we're about yeah we're closing crazy i don't know i've been able to say that yeah oh no i don't know oh no but see we just got that

3:07 yeah so so now we're going to do what we're doing a tribute a tribute to labor day yes we want to say thank you and how much we appreciate workers in america yes which we are working with we're touring we work we are working in america we work as an america and we want to focus on a mechanic yes that's one of our favorites yes it is and that is work replacement worker placement because you're working workers and you're working exactly so you know these games have the worker placement mechanic as the primary mechanic of the game yes and we love it yes and we love these games yes so after a long debate oh it was a debate cause we had quite a few especially one and two one two and three one two and three yeah we're gonna add we have quite a few work replacement games in our collection yes and you know i told my husband that i just don't think we should have two lists no and we were sitting thinking about well you know i don't have my number one and number two you ought to have i said no we're gonna do a top ten then let's do a top ten and we gotta understand too and i want you guys to understand that our top tens will change over time yeah as we add more games to the collection because the top 10 we have today would not be the same top 10 three months ago we got a new and we got a new a new new new one yeah so it changes out

4:39 but at this moment yes our top 10 worker placement games are what we're going to share with you today yes yes yes and yeah and it was hard because i mean when we did the list one time before he had his top five i had my top five yeah and we just got you know we need to come together and come together yeah and do it as one list because together right now who was that the beatles yeah but yeah i like them oh i'm sorry i know that's

5:22 we have to come together and decide these are really the top ten because we have to debate why yes why we think these are the top ten yes and so these are the ones we have today like i said if we do this list next year we may have a different we may we do this list in a couple of weeks but as of this moment these are our top 10 workers we're not going to delay we're going to start with number 10 number 10 number 10. now this one you picked up i did you picked it out and and it's it's a good game it is a solid game and i like it it is actually one of the few in our collection that i picked yes i don't get to pick the games no usually you do it i do but this is what i picked yes we were at a board game store yes and i like the box yes and i read it i always like the box it's always the box and luckily the games were good so number 10 is istanbul istanbul not constantine not constituting istanbul it's the move by aeg yes two to five players and it is a really awesome workforce yes it is it is it is and what i like about it i like the way you take your little assistants yeah and move them around the board yeah and then when you start to run out you got to go collect yourself because they working they work it they work you got to go collect them and get back together i can go do more work and then then your cousin always in jail family member always in jail well you know when he helps you out that one time then you can arrest them and put them

6:52 back well your opponent cannot rest yeah republican rest which is bad i mean because he just got out of jail i mean why are you gonna pull him back in yeah that's just me cuz larry didn't do nothing yet none of y'all but he did something because he was like innocent but he did something because he was in jail when the game started innocent but when the game starts he's already he's in jail it's like he didn't do anything to the game you know what i like about the christmas in jail what when he gets out he does go to work he does good good things he goes to work that's where he helps us out now he does something bad to go back in but you do work

7:35 yes yes it is so anyway our favorite number 10 istanbul is now number nine yes is is a a favorite now for a while we didn't play it yeah it was on our shelf of shane and we didn't really play it and stall it wasn't you weren't real interested in it and then i said i pulled it down said we gotta play it we gotta play this game and it's targey by cosmos and it's a two-player game and i said come on star we gotta play we gotta play it and you played it and we played a whole bunch of things and it's a great two-player game yeah that's worker placement i i like the way you can uh things change each time when you put down the new cards you change the board up charges awesome it's cool i mean i think we've had it so long in our collection that i think we first started i think we were focused on other games that's probably why i didn't try to get around to it yeah but now i appreciate the value of a two-player worker placement game and it deserves a smile it doesn't sound desperate and now we got the expansion just a couple of days ago i bought that and i want to check and see how that goes well i'm looking forward to that yeah i do i really love target and that is our number nine yeah number one number eight number eight we we just it's been on our shelf of shame for a little while it's a new game it's a new game we tried it out yes we did and we got that we got we it was one of the five games we said we were gonna play

9:07 and get on the table and so that's this is the third one yeah the third one out of five yes and that's nevada city nevada city by rio grande games yes two to four to the fourth it's pretty cool it's a cool game it's a cool game yeah i mean we're gonna play it again yeah but get it out there and it is all working i mean and it's the theme man the theme really just brings you in oh it's very thematic i love the way it is i mean it's a town yeah and you you're a city and you're making your little well they used to call them cities but it's really a town there's a town you got a town nevada city and you got your your jail and your boarding house and your sawmill and your general got your shares and stuff

9:55 yeah you're doing all the stuff you know and then you can hire workers you got high workers to give you more action spots yeah yeah i i love it i'm i'm excited about this yeah i am excited but you know it's just so thematic it's just now the one thing i do have to throw out that i wish the families that you're playing were more diverse more diverse you know because they were some black folk that had some things going on in the west in the west because you said you're your family in arkansas how much i was laying ahead that was arkansas that's the south no that's kind of the west but my grandfather's family had 296 acres now see that's that's the ponderosa among my grandfather and his siblings yeah and so i still have land in arkansas now but yeah 296 that's a lot that's a lot that's a lot of that's a lot of big valley that's a lot of land and then i had an uncle which was really digressing yeah who actually was a peanut farmer yeah he farmed peanuts yeah yeah yeah so i've been on a peanut farm which is interesting but anyway back to the varsity you know yeah but you know nevada city you know you could you could see you know like homeboy from gun smoke coming down there you know you know doing his thing or rifleman you know the rifleman in the town yeah taking care of philly i like that you can throw yourself into the theme yes you can you become that family yes and you become that person who's making sure this town develops yeah and you make the town town you want it to be yeah because i love putting towns the city i've said this before putting things together making sure

11:26 you've got your jail and you've got your your a general store and you have all those things that are necessary to make the town function so i'm really liking it and it's fun it's fun i really like it it's really fun and we're going to keep it it's going to build up i think it's going to move up our list over time right now right now it's number eight yeah and now number seven we we played it wrong the first time we played yes we did we we were bad we didn't tell yeah about this one where we played it wrong and then our friend jordan yeah showed us how to play it the right way jordan right before the uh uh pandemic hit yeah we got a chance to play with jordan and caitlin and we learned key flower key flower heat flowers r d games games two to six players two to six players where it's so cool that your workers your meeples can become your money too yes they're your income they're everything they're everything you know they working hard to you know give you isn't that kind of like life i mean because i mean we work and we're our money because if we don't work we don't make money that's true and we got to work hard to make that money that's true it's life that's that's why that's why that's right so we really like key flour because the first time we got it wrong then we got it right we got it right and it was just a great game when we got it wrong we didn't like it yeah but once we got it right you know and i play a lot i play a whole bunch on board game arena yeah online since this pandemic was going on

12:58 i played online a lot so i don't know i know y'all don't do it yeah i know me too i like touching the pieces yeah number six number six number six it's got a story too it's got a story too it does it's a small box game yeah big punch yeah uh but i love it it's harvest harvest if you haven't heard about harvest you should check it out it's by tmg tasty metro tasty menstrual games two to four players and this time we got to mention the designer yeah because we know we know he's from h town like us houston texas and he has a special connection because my daughter he taught in high school he taught it he's an english teacher so that's trey chambers what's up trey love your game service yes love the characters yes and yes it is worker placement yes it's working placement not enough work not enough work not enough time but i need more people i need more time but it's cool you basically just uh you know you're just doing farming work yeah you're farming working and it's funny that's working you're working that's right that's foreign yeah now this next one we normally focus on family gateway yes we do you know middleweight lightweight type games yes we do this one it's neither one it kind of hit your brain a little bit it's it's a heavyweight it's kind of hit your brain you know some may say no but i'm gonna tell you prove me wrong on

14:28 this one this is a heavyweight it has a large table press yes it does but it's a beautiful game it is and and the way it plays it's beautiful and that is yokohama yokohama another tmg game yeah two to four players yeah yeah just moving and you're like the the big boss man and you got to make sure your assistants do they think work but you know what it says two to four and maybe it plays well or two we don't like to play it too you really need a third and fourth player yeah you do this it is a huge game yes it is and for me to get the full value of what this game has to offer yeah you need that third and fourth player because it's playing back and forth for two people i don't get the fun in that so this is two to four but like some play some games play better at two than others this one does not you need three or four yeah because the way you have to move your assistants around by putting you know you know your little assistants and you know your little workers around you know you got to avoid sometimes you got to have that line where you got to avoid people if you don't if you don't you got to pay money to your opponent yeah with two people you can kind of avoid them yeah but with three or four three or four you gotta make some hard decisions

15:45 yeah analysis paralysis oh my god you're sitting there going know what's um there's this stigma on ap sometimes it's some good ap well you gotta have it you know this thing we're like oh don't do ap sometimes you need it so you can think and like hold up give me come on let me get this right let me think i

16:21 like i told y'all before when i'm at the table i've been at work i'm at work i'm trying to figure out how to make this game work for me it worked you know so i i may have a little ap on your computer yeah yeah but in the end i have a great time yeah it's a fun game it's a fun game number four number four it's a classic yes we love it yes we do yes and that's a great for z-man games z-man games two to four players and that's the classic that's usually rosenberg that's uva that's the man and i mean i i guess it's a middleweight game it's a midway game yeah but you got it feed those people yeah you gotta feed your people and you can have a little ap on this one yeah because that one time you got you didn't feed them all that one time yeah and you got the little beggar card oh that was bad yeah you got that bigger card that wasn't oh man you kill off all your animals yes i do you kill off everything you're reminding me though yes you gonna tell on me i'm gonna tell you your animals i know and i don't like to kill it i miss jimmy i don't like to kill my animals my pig i like to keep them you remind me about jimmy i love jim i love jenna i had to give up it was either jimmy or my family and jimmy had to go i guess jimmy had to go it hurt me it still hurts i don't think so i think you like to kill off your animals no i don't i think you get a special little piano just for the ones that aren't no no no jimmy was special

17:51 all of my animations are not expendable i love them you love them you love them no see it will say either it's the animals or my family animal's got to go yeah half his animals are family they gotta go we gotta go you can't get too attached to enemies you gotta go you know i was attached to jimmy but jimmy have to go yes then we have to go now here is where the debate came in yeah these last three three three to one and three two and one yes we literally had to go back and forth trying to decide where we're gonna place these well i gotta have some water on that one so because this next one for me could have been number one or two yeah it but it ended up being number three because it own way it could have been either one could have been either one and that is stone age stone age that's a gateway man game gateway classic yep and it's two to four players love stoning yes yes yes it introduces you really to working with a placement yes it really introduces you it's one of those games we've had a long time your little cave man got to do their thing they got to work they got to work you got to build that tribe up got to get them going get you a good number make sure you feed them oh you got to feed them you got to feed them you got to feed them but i like it you know it really shows you how to work work replacement yes it does it also speaks a little math in there for the kids there's a lot of math get some math in there i like a lot of math because you got to know

19:22 how much you're going to get when you go to the woods you have wood or get a stone or get brick you know if you're going there to get five pieces you know you got to know how to add all that up yeah so it's it's a really it's a really good game it's really good and i think the first time we played it it was tough because it blew our mind a little bit i was still new you know to the highest this is one of the games we got many many years ago it was a tough one it blew our minds but we were determined yeah and that's that's what that's keep an open mind keep it up like i keep telling keep going but if you really want to add this type of hobby to your life you're going to have to be determined to learn again just like you say starla don't let no game intimidate you not to play because you always say no game intimidates you not to play it no they're games yeah yeah oh starter you don't play you don't yeah you don't do co-op you don't do this i'm not intimidated by it i just don't like it you're gonna like it and as you guys know if i don't like it i'm not gonna play it so it's not an intimidation factor i've tried co-ops i've tried escape rooms those kind of games i just don't have an affinity for them so i don't play them yeah but other games that you know are my type of game i don't care if it's a heavyweight or mid-weight or gateway i will sit there and try to learn it even though my husband seems to think that i don't well i don't you are hard to teach star money your heart i don't want to learn but i do but i learned the rules when he teaches them you you you learn but you won't look at no know how to

20:54 play as fun you fall asleep on them but i do try to watch them but you fall asleep i'm gonna sleep i mean you know what can i say but i actually after a minute you are yeah you'll be going out get out the mirror let me out i'm like what is going on but yeah stone age is our number three and i i would probably put it at number two for me but again we can't have the two yeah the me and him it's us three is fine where it is i think three is fine but not number two number two now i think personally number two should be number one another fight we have another fight it should be number one no it could not be number one yeah for many many reasons it could not be number one yeah but i think so number two it's a good spot number two is a good spot number two is champions of midgard gray fox games yes two to four player yes five with a with the expansion and we got all of we got all of it we got all of it and we also have part two of cameras of midgard was reavers of midgard we got that we got that's on our show for shane that's on ourselves the same so we haven't got to again yeah i got two yet but champions of midgard i like i i don't know i love it i really like it i love the dice yes they've got kind of chunky colorful dice uh well kind of coffee without any green that's the one that's the one comeback game yeah that you enjoy yeah yeah that's a good comeback you love it

22:27 yeah trolls and whatever so your champions of midgard is a really great working placement game yeah and you know i guess it's a good spot for it too it kind of is stone age down i think it should be one no no no no no because champions i mean you get you go and you know you do different things you know you fight monsters then you get on ships to go to fight far away monsters and then you know the expansions you know valhalla really just makes it really shiny yeah i agree i don't know you know valhalla makes it really shiny then just the throne with i think i think the other one is undermountain or something like that the next one you know that's a good one too but valhalla and the base game whoo that's something seriously i agree yeah but it still does not take the place of number one and you agreed because we didn't yeah yeah i did the reason why let's go ahead and go into number one yeah number one number one is lords of waterdeep yes yes bridges are the coast wizards on the toes yes dragons dozens of dragons you know two to five and you can get six with the expansion that you kind of need skull port yeah essential you know atoms yes that might be an essential we'll see what let's say loads of water deep the reason why it's number one well for one you can't get it up to six yeah where champions you only go to five yeah and then also lords of waterdeep is one of those games it's a classic it's a classic and we bring it out to teach it to new people

23:57 yeah we've never brought our champions to teach to someone no because they we usually bring out people that already know how to play the stream but we have used lords of quarterback as a gateway to teach people yeah that's why i think and we agreed yeah it should be number one that's true because lord lord's award you can bring out for anybody out of the way and just go with the base game it's cool yeah but once those people kind of wrap it up and they already know how to play yeah man bring skull porn in there man yeah new skulls man man that corruption whoo yes yeah lots of water and i love that you kind of blend it out a little bit by instead of having the little cubes we've got the little little meatballs meeples yeah yeah we've got the little priests the warriors and the robes and all that stuff so i love the way our game looks i think we could bling it out a little more okay with the money we can get some real money yeah we get through money well now we got the iron clays we don't need it iron clays don't go good with loads of water dude okay what you want the metal types i want the real like fantasy metal types yeah because the fantasy games kind of fantasy i guess yeah i can't put no iron clays you know you can't do that that's one of my yeah i mean yeah you know you putting your people out there to get what you need to get your resources going and get cards i mean that is working places yeah one-on-one yeah so now we will definitely have a list for you at the

25:28 end yeah telling you all of our top ten but these are our wonderful worker placement games in honor of labor day because they all work for us we're all working man we're workers out here and i hope you're having a great holiday hope you had a great uh holiday weekend had some barbecue out there at your house and had some fun so you know i really i really hope they did i hope you really had some good times i do too so i hope you enjoyed our list yes and don't forget you can find us on facebook instagram and twitter and also on the dice tower you can find us there and everybody we love you and hope to see you again yep and if you haven't got a shirt or a pillow show off the ospg family that's right you know because it's not just us it's all of us we have fun at the table with our family and we love seeing the pictures of you guys wearing your shirts and just taking pride in your family yeah playing games so we really appreciate that do that keep them coming keep them coming let's see it let's see it we love it yeah i think that's it that's it that's it we've done all that talking and stuff like we always do this is it that's it everybody we out bye now

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